Cicone April 2024

Greetings to all our faithful partners. We pray that you find this newsletter encouraging as God continues to amaze us with the great work He is doing in Tanzania.

Outreach

When Rafiki started schools in ten countries in Africa (Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi), the long-term goal was to have each school be a model school which would help local church schools adopt the Rafiki Education System (RES) and the Rafiki Bible Study (RBS). In Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria efforts in reaching this goal are more advanced as fifty-five schools in these countries are using the RES and the RBS.

Our efforts in Tanzania have been much slower because the RES is not yet approved by the government. However, we are excited to share that six Lutheran schools are using the Rafiki Bible Study and three more will implement it by the end of the year. This means over 2,500 students (including our own) will be studying the Bible every day. Reports from these schools are that students and teachers are very excited to have this good biblical teaching.

Mr. Elibariki’s Early Childhood three class

God is opening doors, and we believe this is just the beginning. Pray that God will help us train more schools how to teach the Rafiki Bible Study.

RICE

We have twelve dedicated students in our RICE Program this year. They spend mornings observing and assisting in classrooms of our primary and secondary schools, and then they take classes in the afternoon on classical pedagogy (i.e. how to teach using the classical method of instruction), Bible, language arts, music, and art. Gwen is very pleased with how the students are progressing. Pray that Gwen will have wisdom as she develops these twelve students and prepares them to be good teachers .

OrphanCare

We currently have thirty-seven residents living in our Village with the youngest four in sixth grade. In the next two years we will graduate twenty-four of our residents. While the number of on-campus residents is diminishing, the number of graduates we care for is increasing. In March, we had our first group of A-level graduates that will be attending university. There is a lot of preparation that must be completed, and we will be providing career guidance to help the students select a major aligning with their God-given gifts. We are excited as our teenagers move on and become young adults ready to lay the foundations for a productive career. Pray that God will guide these young men and women into good careers.

Gwen with Short-term Missionary Susan Peoples visiting a widows group back in February

2024 Enrichment

Enrichment speakers Dr. Dennis Johnson, Dr. Rick Phillips, and Rev. Dr. William Zulu, along with Rafiki Founder Rosemary Jensen and Executive Director Karen Elliott

Sharing about God’s blessing this past year at Enrichment held in Florida

As you can see, God continues to bless our work here in Tanzania. We pray that God will bless you wherever you labor for Him as well.

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